December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Public Schools
by Ross Wright 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Or About: 24 Sep 96 at 14:16, Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM wrote: > No, on the contrary, sending poor kids to good schools on scholarships > does not improve their genes. They tend to become drug dealers. > That just about does it for me. This jerk is just trying to push everyone's buttons. He is doing a beautiful job. Fuckhead. Ross

1 0

Lexis and Privacy - Bill approaches.
by Black Unicorn 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Pressure from the FTC Which fielded hundreds of complaints about Lexis and the social security number scrap) has prompted members of the Banking Committee to add provisions to the most recent spending bills which protect personal information (including social security numbers, phone numbers, addresses, and so forth) under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This limits access to this information to credit agencies and otherwise authorized entities. (Of which I assume Lexis is not one). It's not great protection, but it's something. I urge everyone to take their own measures to protect personal data regardless of what some piece of paper on a library shelf says is protected. The only real protection is not to allow release of the data in the first place. -- I hate lightning - finger for public key - Vote Monarchist unicorn(a)schloss.li

2 1

Re: We removed radikal 154 from xs4all :(
by James A. Donald 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 6:31 PM 9/23/96, tank wrote: >>Hi all, >> >>We have temporary removed radikal 154 from xs4all. >> >>We did this because the german ICTF and BAW continued to stop IP-traffic >>to and from xs4all. They not only blocked the web-server (with more than At 02:00 PM 9/23/96 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote: >Unfortunately, this means that Germany wins. No it does not: It means that I and presumably lots of other people just added radikal to their web sites. --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd(a)echeque.com

1 0

ISP Legal Fund
by William H. Geiger III 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi, As it seems to be an almost daily event of hearing of a government authortity infringing on the liberty of Internet Users throughout the world I would like to present the following proposal: The establishment of an Internet Service Provider Legal Fund. All ISP world-wide would contribute to this fund. The resources of this fund would be used for the legal fees of ISP who whish to challenge government infringements of their users freedoms & liberties. Something like an ACLU for the Internet but on a Global scale. Any thoughts? -- ----------------------------------------------------------- William H. Geiger III http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii Geiger Consulting WebExplorer & Java Enhanced!!! Merlin Beta Test Site - WarpServer SMP Test Site Author of PGPMR2 - PGP Front End for MR/2 Ice Look for MR/2 Tips & Rexx Scripts Get Work Place Shell for Windows!! PGP & MR/2 the only way for secure e-mail. Finger whgiii(a)amaranth.com for PGP Key and other info -----------------------------------------------------------

1 0

Namibia, Marxists, and Peaceful Transitions
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 5:02 PM 9/24/96, stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com wrote: >People have been imposing their will on others in Ireland for 800 years, >and killing off the more prominent members of the opposition has been >a long-term policy of the thugs who've been doing it. Today there are >at least three competing gangs of thugs trying to impose their will on >others by force. The Protestants are afraid that the Catholic majority >on the island will enforce their rule on them, and the Catholics in the north >are afraid that the Protestants will enforce their rule on them, >both with good reason as near as I can tell. At least a few years ago, >the IRA were spouting Marxist rhetoric and wanted to impose their >Marxist thuggery on the whole island. The Queen's Empire's army ... Apropos of this (but not apropos of mathematical cryptography :-}), I read an amazing article, an uplifting article, a few years ago in the WSJ. The article was about Namibia, the country to the northwest of South Africa. Also known at times as "South-West Africa." (Being a Pynchon fan, Namibia and its Hereros had always had some interest to me.) South Africa was involved in a war/occupation situation with Namibia for many decades, with hit teams deployed to Windhoek to kill off opponents, etc. A bad situation all around. Some similarities with the situation in Northern Ireland. The leader of the opposition--which I think was called SWAPO, though that might have been Angola...anyway, some alphabet soup name like SWAPO--was a U.S.-trained college professor-type dyed-in-the-wool Marxist theoretician. He lived for years in Harlem and wrote articles about the coming Marxist paradise in Namibia. Rhetoric about driving out the parasites that prey upon the body of the people, seizing the means of production, yadda yadda yadda. All the usual Marxist stuff. Well, South Africa pulled out. Some sort of "peaceful transition" was arrived at, and the Marxists moved in. Except they almost immediately abandoned their Marxist rhetoric (which was approximately coincident with the collapse of Communism and the Berlin Wall, U.S.S.R., etc., so this may have had something to do with their loss of Marxist faith). The long and short of it is that the Namibian economy is doing well, relations with South Africa are good (also helped by changes in RSA's government one has to assume), the citizens are happy, AP-type killings have stopped, and both blacks and whites appear to be getting along fine. After reading the article, and seeing an interesting Namibian-made movie called "Dust Devil," I decided I would one day visit Namibidia as a tourist. (The article was a stunning one, the kind that the WSJ is able to sometimes do so well. I clipped it out, but have long since lost track of it. If anybody finds it in any online archives, I would appreciate getting a copy.) Whether Northern Ireland could be handled so felicitously is not clear, though I suspect the North could be absorbed into the Republic of Ireland easily and without "summary executions" of Protestants. Ireland--the Republic--is doing pretty well, has lots of high-tech plants (including a massive Intel chip factory near Limerick) and I think even the Northern Ireland Protestants would end up better off under Irish rule. (While many of us dislike the basic notion of "Irish rule," surely the nonlocal rule by a country across the Irish Sea is less appropriate than by the historical and geographic "landmass" of Ireland per se?) --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

1 0

Re: Private Information Retrieval
by frantz＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 8:54 PM 9/24/96 -0700, Lucky Green wrote: >On Tue, 24 Sep 1996, Ravi Pandya wrote: > >> ABSTRACT: >> >> Publicly accessible databases are an indispensable resource for retrieving >> up to date information. But they also pose a significant risk to the >> privacy of the user, since a curious database operator can follow the user's >> queries and infer what the user is after. > >Hmm. Sounds like job for KeyKOS :-) Yup. That was the original problem KeyKOS nee Gnosis was designed to solve. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Frantz | "Cave softly, cave safely, | Periwinkle -- Consulting (408)356-8506 | and cave with duct tape." | 16345 Englewood Ave. frantz(a)netcom.com | - Marianne Russo | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA

1 0

Re: A daily word of caution in reference Tim C[unt] May
by Adamsc＠io-online.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Mon, 23 Sep 1996 01:50:01 -0400, Dustbin Freedom Remailer wrote: >Tim C[unt] May is not only as queer as a three dollar bill, but he is also into >having sex with children. Hi Dmitri!

1 0

Re: Taking crypto out of the U.S.
by Adamsc＠io-online.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Mon, 23 Sep 1996 21:25:33 -0500 (EST), Adam Shostack wrote: >Theres a personal use exemption. Michael Froomkin's web page has a >pointer to it. What if your laptop gets "stolen"? Or you sell it for a plane ticket home after your wallet gets pinched? >| Soon I am going to be going overseas to Japan, and I want to take >| my notebook with me so I can keep up with everything, however, I have >| encrypted my hard drive and usually encrypt my mail. Is this in violation >| of the ITAR to keep everything the same when I go over?

2 1

LACC: Encryption and Japan
by T Bruce Tober 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

A few months ago I read an article concerning one of the encryption gurus (other than PZ) setting up a company in Japan to create a new encryption program as good as or better than PGP which since it was developed in Japan, wouldn't be subject to ITAR. Actually I think the article indicated he'd already set up the company and developed the software and was getting ready to market it. I think it was Diffie, but can't remember and can't find any info on it. Does anyone here have any info, leads or contact details they can provide me? tbt -- | Bruce Tober - octobersdad(a)reporters.net - Birmingham, England | | pgp key ID 0x9E014CE9. For CV/Resume:http://pollux.com/authors/tober.htm | | For CV/Resume and Clips: http://nwsmait.intermarket.com/nmfwc/tbt.htm | | | | "Just as the strength of the Internet is chaos, so the strength of our | | liberty depends upon the chaos and cacophony of the unfettered speech the| | First Amendment protects." -- three wise federal judges |

1 0

Re: ISPs' information on users
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 8:18 PM 9/24/96, Robert Hettinga wrote: >--- begin forwarded text >> ------------------------------ >> Brave Old World: >> Reflections on Europe in the Digital Age >> by Steven Carlson; 20 Sep 1996 >> ------------------------------ >> >> ** So Much Fuss About A Bottle Of Ketchup >> >> Hungarian police recently sent a fax around to the local Internet >> service providers (ISPs) asking them to provide lists of their users >> in Esztergom, a small town outside of Budapest. It seems somebody >> had planted a bomb in a bottle of ketchup. Since everyone knows you >> can download bomb-making instructions from the Internet, the police >> figured they should investigate the local users. No, I'm not making >> this up. So, Hungary has GAK -- Government Access to Ketchup. Good to know the 57 Varieties are now considered munitions. On a more serious note, perhaps legal experts here could comment on something I've been wondering about. Could ISPs in the UlS. be compelled to report on the browsing and net surfing habits of their customer base? To make this clear, I don't mean in a specific criminal case, where the records are searchable under a warrant. I mean a blanket order that all ISPs compile and forward records. Were I an ISP, I would probably say, "Hell no! They're my records and the Fourth Amendment says my records are to be secure unless a proper court order is issued. Besides, my fee for generating each kilobyte of records is $100,000, nonnegotiable." (I think I've answered my own question, namely, ISPs would be under no obligation to report on customer activities, absent a proper warrant, and consistent with the ECPA.) However, ISPs are _not_ accorded the same status as priests, lawyers, and others with such privacy privileges (and obligations). Would it be legal for an ISP to offer for sale such records? Or to voluntarily go to the cops? (There's a certain new ISP with tight links to a quasi-religious group much in the news lately, and some have speculated that this ISP may be monitoring certain users....) --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

5 4